This invention relates to the art of powder metallurgy. This invention is the result of a contract with the Department of Energy (Contract No. W-7405-ENG-36).
Alloys of tungsten in uranium are conventionally produced by coreducing uranium tetrafluoride with tungsten oxide or tungsten fluoride. The maximum amount of tungsten which can be alloyed with uranium to obtain a coherent shape using this coreducing process is about 4 wt %. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,959,194, issued Sept. 25, 1990, entitled "High Strength Uranium-Tungsten Alloy Process" (Dunn et al.), a method of making alloys of tungsten and uranium is disclosed. These alloys may be described as dispersion-strengthened and precipitation-strengthened alloys where tungsten particles are uniformly dispersed throughout the alloy. The composition of these alloys ranges from about 4 wt % to about 35 wt % tungsten. In an article in the Journal of Metals (January 1950) entitled "The Alloy Systems Uranium-Tungsten, Uranium-Tantalum and Tungsten-Tantalum," Schramm, Gordon, and Kauffman reported on their work which resulted in construction of a phase diagram for the uranium tungsten system.